How to Choose Studio Monitors

LEFT: Studio monitors are not the place to
skimp in your studio. Fortunately, even
a modestly priced set, such as the MAudio
AV 40 ($149 street) can produce
detailed, wide-ranging sounds.
RIGHT: Larger monitors,
such as
a set of JBL
LSR2328Ps
($700 street)
can produce
more bottom
end and lower-frequency
extension.

For the past few installments of Guitar
Tracks, we’ve been looking at the front-end
(aka capture) portion of our recording
rigs—microphones and microphone
preamps. Now we’re going to shift our
attention to the back end and talk about
monitors. In my opinion, monitors are the
most important item in your studio. Many
musicians spend tons of time obsessing over
microphones, mic preamps, and other gear,
but then purchase whatever monitors present
themselves without a second thought.
Big mistake! Mics, preamps, and other gear
are super important, but virtually everything
you do in your studio—tracking,
editing, processing, mixing, and mastering—is determined by the sound you hear
out of your monitors. So your monitors
simply must be accurate, meaning they
must reproduce audio signals without adding
coloration to the sound.

What happens if your monitors aren’t
accurate? Your mixes and tracks won’t be
“transportable.” In other words, your tracks
may sound fine through your monitors, but
when you go to play them back on your
MP3 player, in your car, or on a friend’s
stereo system, they won’t sound the same.
If your monitors boost the bass, your tracks
will sound weak in the low end on other
systems. Likewise, if your monitors are
heavy in the midrange, your tracks’ mids
will sound scooped when played elsewhere.
If the monitors are dark sounding or don’t
have enough highs, you’ll tend to compensate
by cranking the highs on your tracks,
which will make them sound bright and
harsh when heard elsewhere.

Passive vs. Active. There are two main
categories of studio monitors: passive and
active. Passive monitors require an external
power amp, because they have no amplification
built in. On the other hand, active
monitors have electronics—including
amplification and perhaps even processing
such as equalization and a crossover—built
in. The crossover splits the signal into separate
high, low, and, sometimes, midrange
frequencies. Each of these frequency bands
is then routed to its own amplifier and
speaker inside the monitor, creating a cleaner
result than running everything through
a single amp and speaker. A 2-way monitor
splits the signal into two bands and has two
speakers (a woofer or low-frequency driver,
and a tweeter or a high-frequency driver).
A 3-way monitor splits the signal into three
bands and has three drivers—one for lows,
one for mids, and one for highs.

It might seem as if a monitor with more
drivers would be cleaner and better, but
there is definitely a point of diminishing
returns—because each of those splits
increases the complexity of the speaker
design. There can be problems at crossover
points and in getting the multiple drivers to
work well together—especially at close listening
distances. For this reason, we rarely
see studio monitors with more than three
drivers. In fact, many monitors on the market
are 2-way designs.

Near or Far? Another way to categorize
studio monitors is by their intended use, or
more specifically, the distances from which
they are designed to be heard. Far-field
monitors are intended for listening from a
distance of 10 feet or more. They’re typically
quite large, with a lot of power. In
commercial studios, these are the big monitors
mounted in the front wall. Few of us
have enough space in our home or project
studios to be able to use far-field monitors.

Mid-field monitors are intended to be
listened to from six to 10 feet away. Midfields
are usually pretty good-sized monitors,
often with a 3-way design, and they
usually offer plenty of power. If your studio
has a large control room or space, you may
be able to use mid-fields to get a wider frequency
response with much better low end
than smaller monitors.

Near-field monitors are the most common
type found in home and project
studios. Also known as close-field monitors,
they’re designed to be heard from just a few
feet away—usually three to six feet. Their
advantages for home- and project-studio
use include compact dimensions and volume
levels that are more convenient for the
environments most of us work in these days.
Another big advantage of near-fields is that
their close proximity reduces the room’s
acoustic influence on the sound you’re hearing—which is an especially good thing if the
room isn’t well-treated acoustically.

Big vs. Small. Do you need massive
monitors to get good low-frequency
response? Typically, larger monitors with
bigger speakers are better able to reproduce
very low frequencies. The other aspect that’s
important here is power. There’s a reason
why bassists generally use higher-powered
amps to compete with guitar amps: Lower
frequencies simply require more power to
emit a given volume from a speaker than
midrange and treble frequencies do.

That said, modern technology allows even
smaller monitors to produce a surprising
amount of bass. One approach that monitor
manufacturers use to enhance low-frequency
response is designing a port in the cabinet.
A port is a specifically sized opening in the
monitor housing that serves to redirect the
sound waves from the back of the speakers
out to the listener’s ears. If the port is
designed well, the sound waves from the
back will reinforce those from the front, particularly
in the low frequencies. This allows a
smaller cabinet to produce bass response that
is similar to that of a much larger cabinet.

That’s all for this month, but we’ve
got more to cover regarding monitors
and monitoring. So be sure to come
back next month!

Mitch Gallagher is
the former editor in chief of
EQ magazine. He’s written
more than 1000 articles
and six books on recording
and music technology, and
has released an instructional
DVD on mastering. His upcoming book is
entitled Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate
Electric Guitar Sound. To learn more, visit
mitchgallagher.com.

Mitch Gallagher's latest book is Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate Guitar Sound. He is the former Editor in Chief of EQ magazine. In addition to being a writer, he is a freelance recording engineer/producer/mastering engineer, teaches music business and audio recording at Indiana University/Purdue University, and is Sweetwater’s Editorial Director. mitchgallagher.com.

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